


I Scream for Ice Cream

by happyaspie



Series: Tony Stark is a Good Mentor [44]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Ice Cream, Peter Parker is Amused, Precious Peter Parker, Random & Short, This is ridiculous, Tony Stark Has Nightmares, Tony Stark is a Good Mentor, Unfortunate Situations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:28:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23389546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happyaspie/pseuds/happyaspie
Summary: Tony falls asleep in the lab and has a nightmare.  One that involves buying his favorite spider-kid copious amounts of ice cream and then... Well, the end results have him jerking awake with a shout.  Peter tries to be comforting but in the end, all he can do it laugh...This is not going to go how you think it's going to go.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Tony Stark is a Good Mentor [44]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1397362
Comments: 46
Kudos: 278





	I Scream for Ice Cream

"Hey, Mr. Stark? Can we get some ice cream?", Peter enthusiastically inquired from the passenger side seat of Tony's favorite Audi. 

Seeing as he couldn't think of anything else that required his attention at the moment, Tony shrugged his shoulders and pulled in to the next ice cream shop they came across. "Sure, kiddo. What do you want?", he asked as the little bell on the door rang out to notify the employees that they had entered. 

"Can I get a double scoop?", Peter returned with a grin and Tony was quick to nod his head. The kid could have asked for a quadruple scoop and he would have been fine with it. He knew the kid could eat it and even if he couldn't the cost of a heaping pile of the frozen confection was like pennies to him. 

As soon as the young man reached the counter, Peter placed his order for two scoops of double-chocolate-chunk in a cone while Tony requested a single serving of chocolate chip in a cup. It didn't take long for the man to collect their order and once the tab was paid, they walked out the door. Then, just as they reached the car, Peter leaned in to lick his cone but as he did so, the stacked portions went tumbling to the ground with an audible splat. 

"Whoops.", Peter sheepishly spoke as he looked down at his ice cream that was now melting into a pool at his feet. 

Tony rolled his eyes and waved his hand towards the nearby trashcan. "Just throw that away. I'll go get you a new one.", he flippantly replied and began to wander back into the shop where he purchased a duplicate of the kid's previous order. Then, on a whim, he grabbed a stack full of napkins on his way back out. "Here you go.", he said as he handed over the cone to his favorite spiderling. "Let's take it for a walk, though. I'm not sure I trust you with that in my car.", he continued with a smirk.

Chuckling in response, Peter carefully licked around the cone where the chocolate was starting to drip and accepted the wad of napkins the man was holding out for him to take. "That makes sense.", he said with a smile and started down the sidewalk.

As they continued on their way, Tony watched as the kid oh so cautiously ate his ice cream and smiled. It was so hot out that it was already dripping over his hand and no amount of licking or napkins was keeping up. It was turning into a huge syrupy mess. "Are you getting any of that in your mouth?", he teased eliciting a small frustrated noise from his young mentee's mouth.

"I'm trying, Mr. Stark but it's really hot out here and it's melting faster than I can eat it.", Peter explained with indignance. 

Shaking his head, Tony looked down into his own cup and saw that his treat was fairing much better. It just wasn't making a mess. He ended up eating the last few semi-solid bites with the pink plastic spoon before tipping it back and drinking what was left while Peter continued to struggle. "Look, how about we ditch the cone, you wash up and I'll get you a something in a bowl.", he suggested and could see the wheels in the boy's head turning.

After some thought, the kid reluctantly agreed and they ended up backtracking to the same store, where Tony made a third purchase. The ice cream shop employee had just stuck the spoon into the cup when Peter exited the bathroom looking far less sticky. Nodding in satisfaction, Tony handed over the cup and for some unknown reason, they decided to resume their walk rather than sitting inside the air-conditioned building until the snack had been consumed.

Peter walked ahead, peeking into all of the shop windows, commenting on the various items he saw inside between bites as Tony followed causally behind. He'd just paused to look at something himself when he heard Peter start shouting and looked up in surprise. The kid was standing there waving the hand that wasn't holding onto the ice cream filled paper cup towards several pigeons who seemed to have decided that they too wanted something to cool down with. The boy was only able to dodge them for so long before the brightly colored container was being dropped, landing on its head, thus rendering the remainder of the treat inside unedible. 

"You're just not to meant to have any ice cream today, huh, kiddo.", Tony howled with laughter as Peter frowned back at him. "I swear this kind of stuff only happens to you."

Peter huffed and kicked the cup aside, startling the birds that had happily surrounded it and pouted. "It's fine. I got to have some of it anyway. We can just go home."

"Nope. You wanted ice cream. You're going to get ice cream. We'll make it a milkshake this time.", Tony said, then walked into the cafe that just so happened to be right there and ordered a large chocolate shake. "The good news is, you can have this in the car. It has a lid. What could possibly happen?", he teased as he passed the handspun milkshake over with a smile.

Though he soon found out exactly _what could possibly happen_ when they got almost back to the car and Peter tripped over his untied shoelaces, sending the cup flying. "I give up.", the kid grumbled as he picked himself up and leaned down to tie his laces. "You're right. I'm not meant to have ice cream today."

"Yeah, well I don't give up. Look, the ice cream shop we started in is right there. We'll give it another try. Maybe this time we'll sit down and let you finish it in there. No heat, birds or untied laces.", Tony suggested as he looked down at his disheartened mentee. "Maybe we'll buy you some light up velcro shoes while we're out.", he added with a playful grin.

Rolling his eyes, Peter stood up and crossed the distance between himself and his mentor. "It's fine. You don't have to buy me anything else.", he said, ignoring the obvious jab.

Tony scoffed and threw his arm over Peter's shoulders, leading him right back into the small shop they'd started in. "I'm a billionaire, kid. I think I can afford to buy you another bowl of ice cream.", he said as he deposited the kid at one of the white, cast-iron parlor tables and made his way back to the counter.

"One more time. Double scoop, double-chocolate-whatever in a cup.", Tony told the man as he chuckled lightly at the situation. The ice cream there wasn't cheap and he was pretty sure his patronage had just paid the stores light-bill at minimum. Not that he was complaining. It was good ice cream and the place was nicely kept. Besides, he had boatloads of money to cover the costs. With that in mind, he strode up to the register and ran his card through the machine. _'Declined'_ Giving it very little thought, he wiped the magnetic stripe on the back of the card off with a napkin and ran it again. _'Declined'_

"There must be some sort of a mistake.", he mumbled under his breath before pulling out another card. ' _Declined.'_ Then he pulled out another, also declined. Followed by at least three more, all instantly declined. 

"Looks like you've hit the bottom of the bank account.", the man behind the counter taunted and Tony could feel his heart-beat quickening as his breath grew short. 

"No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.", he whispered in horror as he started to rapidly type commands into his phone. While he waited for the information he'd requested to come up, he glanced across the parlor at his smiling companion. Then with a hard swallow, he looked back at his phone. _'Current balance $3.14'_ All he could do was scream.

...and that's how he woke up. Screaming. 

"Are you okay, Mr. Stark?", Peter asked having been startled from his task by the man's shouting. 

Having already jerked his neck up off of his arms, Tony wildly searched the room for confirmation that it had all been nothing more than a dream. "Yeah.", he finally panted out, once it had registered that he was in his lab and not in some over-priced ice cream parlor. Then just to be on the safe side, he hurridly checked his bank balance and stocks, finding them to be just as he would have expected. Relief washed over him as he leaned back in his chair. "Oh, thank God."

Giving the man a scrutinizing look, Peter closed the distance between himself and his mentor. "Did you... have a nightmare?", he asked, his brows wrinkled with concern. While the man had told him he'd had nightmares in the past, he'd never actually been there to witness one before. 

Tony cut his eyes towards Peter and sighed. The adrenalin was starting to wear off and he was finally beginning to catch his breath. "Something like that.", he responded as he ran his hand over his sweaty forehead. God, it was hot in the lab. He really needed to check the cooling system in there.

"Oh. Well, do you want to talk about it? You always tell me it helps to talk about it.", Peter questioned because that seemed like the right thing to do. As many times as the man had been there for him, he wanted to be there to return the favor. 

Now feeling ever so slightly flustered by his reaction, Tony tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling. "It was nothing. I'm fine. I don't even know where that came from.", he honestly replied. He had no idea why his sub-conscious would come up with something like that. 

Feeling more intrigued than ever by the man's evasive answers, Peter tilted his head to the side and smiled with curiosity. "If it was nothing, then why can't you tell me?"

While he knew he absolutely could have made something up and that Peter would believe him, he couldn't bring himself to do it. So, as frustrating and marginally embarrassing as it was, he broke down spat out the gist of it. "I went broke okay! I tried to buy something and my card was declined. All of them.", he said with a roll of his eyes that turned to a half-hearted grumble when the kid began to cackle beside him. "Stop laughing! It was... _horrifying_.", he exclaimed but now that the teenager was laughing he was having a hard time not laughing, himself. 

Nodding his head, Peter tried to get a hold of himself. "I'm sorry, Mr. Stark it's just that... that's so _extra_.", he said before losing it and started to laugh all over again.

For a few seconds, Tony let the kid have his fun. Then he peered towards his watch and sighed. He'd not realized how long he'd been asleep. "Oh, hush you.", he began with a smile. "Why did you let me fall asleep on you like that anyway? Look, it's already time for me to drive you home."

Peter shrugged his shoulders and sat down in the chair directly beside his mentor. "I figured if you fell asleep your head on your desk then you must have been pretty tired. Besides, I had it under control. See? They work now.", he said as he snapped his most current web-shooter design onto his wrists and shot and web across the room. 

As he watched the web float down from where it hadn't attached its self to anything, Tony smiled with pride and remorse. He was supposed to have helped with that. "Good job, Buddy. I'm still sorry I konked out on you instead of hanging out with you though."

Not feeling the least bit daunted by this mentor's impromptu nap, Peter looked at the man with a huge grin. "It's fine. You can make it up to me by buying me some ice cream on the way home.", he declared with a nod of his head. It was typically pretty easy to get the man to agree to buy him some sort of treat during their trip back to Queens but the way the man was looking at him with wide eyes didn't go unnoticed.

"Nope. No way. No how. I'll buy you absolutely anything but that.", Tony promptly replied and when Peter raised his eyebrows at him he crossed his arms defensively over his chest. "Don't ask and I'll buy you a few slices of pie instead."

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written at the request of my fifteen-year-old son who wanted to see Tony go broke buying Peter ice cream. Seeing as that was too audacious to be 'true' I made it a nightmare. 😂


End file.
